Hamzah Zainudin’s two mistakes on the first day of the 15th Parliament after the opening by the 16th Yang di Pertuan Agong — failing to provide check and balance during Prime Ministerial question time and failing the Agong’s test to ensure political stability

The Parliamentary Opposition Leader, Hamzah Zainudin made two mistakes on the first day of the 15th Parliament after the opening of Parliament by the 16th Yang di Pertuan Agong — firstly, in failing to provide check and balance during half-hour Prime Ministerial question time and secondly, in failing to pass the Yang di Pertuan Agong’s test in the Royal Address to ensure political stability for the next five years to allow the country to unite a very polarised plural nation, and to reset and return to the original nation-building principles to become a first-rate world-class nation.

Hamzah was late for the three Prime Ministerial-question session and he did not ask a single supplementary question.

The three Prime Ministerial questions were on the national debt by the MP for Taiping Wong Kah Woh, on Malaysian aid to Turkey and Syria on the earthquake disaster by the MP for Kuala Kangsar Iskandar Dzulkarnain bin Abdul Khalid, and on corruption by the MP for Tawau, Lo Su Fui — all important questions for the future of the country.

Hamzah’s lateness for the Prime Ministerial question session and his failure to participate in it vindicated the statement that he is the first “lame-duck” Opposition Leader who could not set the tone for the parliamentary opposition because the real power is in other hands and who is not taking his parliamentary responsibility seriously.

MPs from all parties must take a serious note of the revelation by the Deputy Dewan Rakyat Speaker Ramli Mohd Nor that the impression of the people was that Parliament was a zoo.

He said he went to a mamak restaurant and the patrons recognised him and asked how was the “zoo”.

But Ramli’s reminder to MPs to always maintain good conduct was not followed and the Dewan Rakyat again became a “zoo”.

Have the Members of Parliament understood the message of the 16th Yang di Pertuan Agong’s Royal Address on Monday to “open their hearts” to the results of last November’s 15th general election — to form a stable government to guarantee political stability and generate economic growth, working on issues such as the cost of living, including subsidies for the people, and anti-corruption?

Will the MPs from all the political parties and groupings respond to the Yang di Pertuan Agong’s call for an end to the “nearly four-year-long political crisis that has plagued the nation”?

The nation will have the answer when the Royal Address motion is completed next Thursday.